We`d gone to Luang Prabang to rest up, eat some proper food and hopefully after that maybe a bit of trekking. Yet Will, who had picked up a stomach virus between vang vieng and the journey here, was almost instantly bed bound. So as Lauren and me enjoyed the local temples and stunning market, Will was back at the hostel spending an equal time between toilet and bed. We even found this amazing little `all you can eat buffet` on one of the market stalls and took great pleasure in telling Will all about it when we got back.
A couple of days in and Will felt ready to tackle something minor, we thought a trip to the local waterfalls would be alright and the waterfalls really were pretty stunning but Wills stomach really wasn`t doing well and he`d now also picked up an infection from his tubing wounds. This meant back to bed for him, this time with more painful walks to the toilet.
This left the two of us with a slight dilemma as we wanted to do a 2/3 day trek, but because of visas running out and people needing to get places for Christmas we`d have to do it sooner rather than later. This meant the possibility of having to leave Will in bed and just do it on our own. We decided to give him 2 days to try and get right and went about booking a guide and so on, then just waited to see whether he`d be well enough to join us.
We again wandered the markets, eat more and more food (i`ve actually put weight on since arriving in south east Asia, think there`s something in the food.. that or the vast consumption of alcohol. Detox after new year i think) We also took a trip back to our `all you can eat buffet` only to find he`d gone and put his prices up. Probably to re-coup from the last time i wiped him out.
Judgment day came and Will was feeling much more of his old self, he wasn`t continually on the toilet and he`d had his cuts cleaned,creamed and bandaged up, so was ready to go.
"first thing first; bike ride, 4 to 5 hours...." "easy" "all up hill" "balls" he wasn`t joking, there`s nothing more demoralizing than going at a walking pace while on a bike. Anyway that`s done, next! "walking to a village and then we`ll be sleeping up there as well" "ok, that sounds alright as long as it`s not all uph.... "all uphill again guys" "ill, GODDAMMIT" and after another 4 hours walking up very steep, very tiring dirt roads, we arrived at Mong Jong. A spectacular place unlike anything i`d seen so far, no other travellers in sight and stares like we were the first people they`d ever come in contact with. And then without so much as 20 words spoken to our hosts ZZZZzzzzzZZZzzz Out like a light, all 3 of us before 7 o`clock. We only got woke to be fed and then it was straight back to sleep. Only an eventful trip to toilet broke my sleep before being woken again at 6 to carry on trekking.
The toilet trip went something like this; it must of been sometime around 3 or 4 in the morning, there`s no electricity so no light. I do have a torch but i think i must of got it in some cheap cracker last Christmas as the light it emits is so low. But anyway i used it to navigate out of the mosquito net and to the huts exit. The sky was unbelievable, i`d never seen the stars that bright, and the fact there was nothing else as far as the eye could see except blackness just made everything else that little bit more stunning... but i had more pressing matters and walked on to the toilet. It had only just been built closer to the hut (still only a hole in the ground) but thank god as the other designated toilet would of taken me 20 minutes to of found it. As i got closer i started to hear a rustling in the bush next to me, i shone my crap light all over but couldn`t see anything so carried on. More rustling to my right, this time definitely closer. I looked again and saw nothing, but as i brought the light back round to the front of me, there it was, this giant pig looking me right in the eyes, and i`m not kidding but this thing was huge and the faint light made it look like some sort of ghost pig or a animal harbinger of death if you will.
I hadn`t been that sacred since looking through my window one night and seeing the face of a burglar trying to break in, only to realize it was my own reflection.
Where was i, oh, 6 o`clock and off walking again. We`d actually woken in cloud cover so visibility was piratically just feet in front. It had made the steep `dusty` roads now steep `slippery` roads and meant the next hour or so was spent slipping and sliding our way down a hill. The weather gradually cleared and by the time we made it to the adjoining village it was back to its usual sunny self. From here we would canoe to the elephant sanctuary and then onto a much bigger canoe ride back to town. Will and me definitely proving to be the worse kayak team known to man. As Lauren and the guide elegantly and gently paddled downstream, the two of us went about hitting one another with paddles, getting stuck on rocks and generally making a nusense of ourselves.
We ended the trek with a visit to the local whiskey town where a wedding was taking place. This as with any social event in south east Asia meant being dragged in to the mix and being fed anything they themselves were eating and drinking.
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